LG To Focus On OLED TVs

(RTTNews) - South Korea-based flat panel maker LG Display Co. Ltd. (LPL) said Monday it plans to spend 10 trillion won, or $8.46 billion, to expand its organic light-emitting diode displays or OLEDs business.

LG Display Co., a supplier to Apple Inc. (AAPL), said that over the next three years through 2018, it will invest on OLED displays for large products, including televisions as well as flexible and wearable products. The company also plans to find new sources of profits, including signages for outdoor advertising.

LG Display and sister company LG Electronics are the only manufacturers of OLED TVs. However, OLED televisions are still too expensive to produce than liquid crystal display or LCD televisions.

An OLED display works without a back-light and thus can display deep black levels, and can also be thinner as well as lighter than a liquid crystal display or LCD. It can also be made into a flexible display.

LG Display has picked the flexible OLED as its next-generation display, which includes plastic OLEDs, since it has emerged as a lucrative profit source for its wide use in smaller smart devices such as smartwatches and vehicle dashboards.

LG Display expects its increase focus and expansion of the OLED business will enable it to dominate the technology even as Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese rivals attempt to restructure their own display capabilities.

According to the data compiled by DisplaySearch, the world's OLED market is anticipated to rise more than three-fold to $28.3 billion in 2022 from just $8.7 billion in 2014.